Found only in the Western Hemisphere (OG2016)

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Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

A) Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends

B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending

C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending

D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends

E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range
extends

OA: B

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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon May 09, 2016 12:11 pm

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This question is #126 in OG 2016.
Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

A) Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends
B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending
C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending
D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends
E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range
extends
When a sentence begins with a PAST PARTICIPLE such as "FOUND," the GMAT is likely testing the logic of OPENING MODIFIERS. An opening modifier must modify the SUBJECT of the independent clause after it:
Found only in X..., [the thing found in X] is....

In the original sentence, this modifier is misplaced. It's modifying "range" rather than "hummingbirds."

Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

We can eliminate A. Let's examine the other answer choices:


B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending

"Found" correctly modifies "hummingbirds" here. The idiom "from A to B, from C to D" is correctly used.


C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending

It's fine to move the modifier from right before the subject to right after the subject. The issue here is that there is no verb! "Hummingbirds" is the subject, but the phrases beginning with "found" and "with" are modifiers. This is a sentence fragment.


D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends

This one has too many subjects, but not enough verbs. Again, "hummingbirds" is left hanging without a verb to go with it, while "their range extends" assumes the position of independent clause.


E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range extends

This is trying to be a parallel list: "hummingbirds are found..., survive..., and..." If what came after "and" was a verb relating to the subject "hummingbirds," this would be a grammatically parallel list. As it is, the list is VERB, VERB, and INDEPENDENT CLAUSE. Incorrect.


The correct answer is B.
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by Nina1987 » Tue May 17, 2016 5:04 am

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Hi Kay-lee,

Thank you for your detailed explanation.

Though I could easily see how the misplaced modifier was corrected in B, I demurred at "their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sealevel rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet."
Is that an absolute phrase? It always sounds like 'a fragment' to me. Can you pls help me understand this type of construction? What is its purpose and what alternatives writers have over it? This will help me train myself to spot it. What else I should do to train my ear to get comfortable with it?

Thanks again

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by ceilidh.erickson » Tue May 17, 2016 8:26 am

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Hey Nina,

(Btw, my name is Ceilidh, but I just tell people that it's pronounced like "kay-lee," because that's not intuitive in English).

This kind of modifier does sound awkward to many people's ears, because it's not often used in modern English. The first example that came to mind for me was from a Thanksgiving song:
Here we come marching,
Our fine feathers arching.
We're kings of the barnyard;
Plump turkeys are we.


(I think I sang this one in kindergarten). Here, "our feathers arching" is serving as an adverbial modifier for the entire clause before it.

In the OG example, "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending" "their range extending" is modifying the entire clause before it - telling us more about the climate extremes that the birds can survive in. This is very similar to the use of just a present participle as an adverbial modifier:
I tripped over my shoes, falling on my face.
"Falling" is the describing the outcome of "I tripped." A present participle after a comma is presumed to modify the entire clause before it - and by extension, the subject before it.

In this sentence, though, if we just said "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, extending" it would imply that the hummingbirds themselves are extending. This doesn't quite make sense. It's their range that's extending, not the birds themselves. So, we can add a noun before the present participle, and it will function as the same kind of modifier, but make more sense.

There are other ways to express this same idea:

- prepositional phrase: hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, with a range that extends...

- 2 independent clauses: "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate; their range extends..."

- change the modifier: "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, ranging"

Does that help?
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by Nina1987 » Tue May 17, 2016 11:21 am

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Thanks Ceilidh - that was definitely helpful.

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by zoe » Mon Aug 01, 2016 3:46 am

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ceilidh.erickson wrote:Hey Nina,

There are other ways to express this same idea:

- prepositional phrase: hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, with a range that extends...

- 2 independent clauses: "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate; their range extends..."

- change the modifier: "hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, ranging"

Does that help?
thanks so much Ceilidh, your explanations are always so crystal .

would you please help to explain further -ING modifier.
comma + -ING always modifies the preceding clause, right?
so what about the following one:
Coming home from school, I was blown off my bike by the wind.

IMO, "Coming" modifies the subject of "I" which follows
my doubts:
because -ING is initial modifier, so it only modifies the following subject?
and can initial modifier modifies following clause? or only Subject?

Hoping wont wait for a long time reply.
thanks a lot
have a nice day
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by richachampion » Sun Oct 16, 2016 10:10 am

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B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending

Here we are dealing with some kind of sentence fragment or
their range extending is some kind of modifier?
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Oct 16, 2016 3:19 pm

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An absolute phrase consists of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER.
Generally, an absolute phrase serves to modify the preceding SUBJECT and VERB.
Mary entered the room, her face beaming.
Here, the portion in red is composed of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER and is serving as an absolute phrase.
her face refers to Mary (the preceding subject)
The entire absolute phrase serves to modify entered (the preceding verb), indicating HOW Mary ENTERED the room.

Two official examples of an absolute phrase:

SC100 in the OG12:
The stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds.
Here, the portion in red is composed of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER and is serving as an absolute phrase.
some of them refers to the stars (the preceding subject).
The entire absolute phrase serves to modify are (the preceding verb), indicating HOW the stars ARE IN MOTION.

From GMAT Prep:
Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom.
Here, the portion in red is composed of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER and is serving as an absolute phrase.
its 60 square miles refers to Europa (the preceding subject).
The entire absolute phrase serves to modify has long been considered (the preceding verb), indicating WHY Europa HAS LONG BEEN CONSIDERED far too cold to support life.
richachampion wrote:B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending

Here we are dealing with some kind of sentence fragment or
their range extending is some kind of modifier?
OA: Hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
Here, the portion in red is composed of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER and is serving as an absolute phrase.
their range refers to hummingbirds (the preceding subject).
The entire absolute phrase serves to modify survive (the preceding verb), indicating HOW hummingbirds SURVIVE through extremes of climate.
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by richachampion » Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:11 pm

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GMATGuruNY wrote:An absolute phrase consists of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER.
With that said we can infer that Absolute Phrases are adverbial in nature.

Sir, I think Appositive Phrases also have the same structure -

COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER.

What is the decision point to decide whether the phrase is an appositive or an absolute phrase.

Here is my understanding about the appositives -

An appositive noun modifier, a type of modifier that NEVER appears in spoken language but that appears on the GMAT a lot. The reason is that unlike relative pronouns such as 'which', these modifiers don't have to touch their referent.

Take Away: They normally modifies Noun.

Exceptions - If you have an appositive modifier that's an abstract noun - such as "strategy", "figure", "statistic", "findings", "situation", "change", "difference", etc. - then such an appositive may be allowed to describe the entire situation described in the previous clause.

For instance: The general tried to get his troops to retreat before being surrounded, a strategy that ultimately failed.

however my understanding was little bit shattered recently. Citation.

My Question -
How to differentiate between Appositives and Absolute phrases.
Can normal appositive(that are not abstract nouns) can also modify action in GMAC questions(So far I havent seen this).

How to distinguish between appositives and absolute phrases?
So far I have seen that absolute phrases have participial in them. Should we make any generalization?
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by zoe » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:48 pm

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richachampion wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:An absolute phrase consists of COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER.
With that said we can infer that Absolute Phrases are adverbial in nature.

Sir, I think Appositive Phrases also have the same structure -

COMMA + NOUN + MODIFIER.

What is the decision point to decide whether the phrase is an appositive or an absolute phrase.

Here is my understanding about the appositives -

An appositive noun modifier, a type of modifier that NEVER appears in spoken language but that appears on the GMAT a lot. The reason is that unlike relative pronouns such as 'which', these modifiers don't have to touch their referent.

Take Away: They normally modifies Noun.

Exceptions - If you have an appositive modifier that's an abstract noun - such as "strategy", "figure", "statistic", "findings", "situation", "change", "difference", etc. - then such an appositive may be allowed to describe the entire situation described in the previous clause.

For instance: The general tried to get his troops to retreat before being surrounded, a strategy that ultimately failed.

however my understanding was little bit shattered recently. Citation.

My Question -
How to differentiate between Appositives and Absolute phrases.
Can normal appositive(that are not abstract nouns) can also modify action in GMAC questions(So far I havent seen this).

How to distinguish between appositives and absolute phrases?
So far I have seen that absolute phrases have participial in them. Should we make any generalization?
WOW,,,, richachampion,
I had the same question before, and I got a explanation from an expert , following link is for your reference, hope it will help.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-use-of-li ... l#p1759151

have a nice day
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by [email protected] » Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:58 pm

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Hello Everyone!

Let's take a look at this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice quickly! To begin, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

(A) Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends
(B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending
(C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending
(D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends
(E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range extends

There are a lot of things we can focus on here, so let's look at some big-picture issues first, and see how much we can narrow down our choices:

1. Modifiers
2. Parallelism
3. Subject-Verb Agreement


Let's start with #1 on our list: modifiers. We can see from the options given that they contain modifiers, which are a common grammar issue on the GMAT. For each sentence, we need to make sure the modifiers and antecedents match up. We also need to make sure that, without the modifiers, the sentence is still complete with a subject and verb. Here's how things shake out when we focus just on modifiers:

(A) Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is INCORRECT because the modifier "Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate" should refer to hummingbirds, NOT the hummingbird's range! We can rule this out because the modifier and antecedent don't match up.

(B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is OKAY for now. The subject "hummingbirds" matches up with the modifier "Found only in the Western Hemisphere" clearly. Also, if we remove all of the modifiers and non-essential clauses, we're still left with a complete sentence:

Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

(C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is INCORRECT because there is no verb! We only have a subject (Hummingbirds) with 3 modifiers. If we cross out all 3, there is nothing left!

(D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is also INCORRECT because there is no verb! It's another example of a subject (Hummingbirds) with 3 modifiers attached.

(E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is OKAY for now. There are no issues with modifiers in this one!

We can eliminate options A, C, & D because they all have problems with modifiers.

Now that we have things narrowed down to only 2 choices, let's take a closer look at each one to find the better choice:

(B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is CORRECT! The modifiers and antecedents match up and make sense, and there aren't any other grammar issues we can find!

(E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

This is INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure! A common method writers use to fix sentences that contain several modifiers is to turn them into lists. There's nothing wrong with doing that - but make absolutely sure that each item is written using parallel structure!


There you go - option B is the correct choice! It uses modifiers correctly, and doesn't have any issues with parallelism!


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by vietnam47 » Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:34 am

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boomgoesthegmat wrote:Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from sea-level rain forests to the edges of Andean snowfields and ice fields at altitudes of 15,000 feet.

A) Found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, hummingbirds' range extends

B) Found only in the Western Hemisphere, hummingbirds survive through extremes of climate, their range extending

C) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, with their range extending

D) Hummingbirds, found only in the Western Hemisphere and surviving through extremes of climate, their range extends

E) Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, survive through extremes of climate, and their range
extends

OA: B
in choice b, "their range ..." is noun+noun modifier . this phrase work as an adverb of the whole preceding clause but NOT refer to the subject. if this phrase refers to the subject, no "their" in "their range" is required.
in contrast, comma +doing work as an adverb and refers to the subject of the main clause.
I learn gmat, making my thinking more logic.
here, "making" here dose not require "my making " because it refers to "i" already.

I lear gmat, my classmate going out for change

the ending phrase is absolute phrase, which dose not refer to the subject "I'. if it refers to the subject "I', meaning is not logical.